June 2019 Writing Challenge: Burton's Alice
by Veritas Found
Summary: Three ficlets written for a writing challenge, in which: Tarrant plans a Tea for Two, Alice is Pregnant, and Mally breaks a Special Cup.
1. 21 June 2019

**Disclaimer:** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Note:** These were written in a notebook as a writing challenge for June 2019. The goal was thirty days, thirty prompts, thirty minutes (which is why some might seem abrupt: time limit). I'd hit a bit of a dry patch and just wanted to write. These are unedited and mostly just fluff pieces, but I really enjoyed some of them and hey: what's the point of fic if you don't share, right? Even if it's goofball trash.

**21 June 2019**

_**Prompt: **__Essence of Summer_

_**Fandom: **__Alice in Wonderland (Burton)_

_**Character/Pairing:**__ Mallymkun, Tarrant Hightopp; Tarrant Hightopp/Alice Kingsleigh_

_**Rating:**__ K / G / All Ages_

_**Notes:**__ I don't actually believe I've posted any of my Wonderland/Hattice stuff yet. Weird. Hey y'all I love these guys let me break some hearts ok?_

Tarrant giggled madly as he adjusted the teapot with the violets poking out of the top. Alice was going to love it. He'd put ever so much work into it all, after all. The table was set immaculately, with teas from all over Underland – he'd even procured that special blend Alice had brought back from Above. Cakes and biscuits were stacked amid crockery that was decidedly Not Cracked, and the cups they'd be drinking from had never housed neither chip nor Dormouse. Yes, he was quite proud of the singular tea service he'd set out, just for his Alice and him.

A nice, proper summer tea party.

It was going to be lovely. As lovely as –

"Ooooh, what's all this, then?" Mallymkun asked as she hopped onto his table. Tarrant sucked in a whistling breath through the gap in his teeth when he saw the specks of dust fall from Mally's feet and onto the previously pristine table cloth. Mally hadn't noticed, being too preoccupied with the violets making themselves at home in her favorite teapot. "Tarrant! My napping pot!"

"Mally, please!" Tarrant beseeched. "You're ruining it!"

"_I'm_ ruining it?!" she cried. "_You're_ ruining it!"

"Never! It was perfect before _you_ hopped up and smudged your feet all over! It was _clean_ before _you!_" Tarrant harrumphed. He plopped down heavily in the wingback chair he had drug over from the main table and settled in for a proper pout. "All my hard work, naught for usal!"

"You're just being silly now," Mally tutted. "How clean could it've been, with _flowers_ in the _teapot_?"

"_She_ would have loved it," Tarrant grumbled. Mally paused halfway to reaching for the violets. Her whiskers twitched. There was only one _She_, where Tarrant was concerned.

"Perhaps…" she said, slowly. She fluffed the petals instead of removing them. "So, Tarrant…why all the fuss, now? We have a perfectly decent setup over by the house…"

He grew silent. Mally, already Concerned, grew Worried.

"I was setting up a tea party," he said softly.

"But the tea party's already set up, love," Mally said. He hadn't noticed her walk over to him. Nor did he notice her place a tiny paw on his elbow. "What's all this fuss for?"

"That's _Everyone's_ tea party, Mally," he said. He was retreating into himself, his voice lisping. "This was to be _Ours_."

"_Ours_, Tarrant?" she asked. His colors were going funny. Mallymkun knew she needed to turn away from this line of questioning, to Distract him, and yet… "Tarrant?"

"Mine and Alice's, of course," he said with a blissful sort of smile that grabbed Mally's needlepoint sword and stabbed it through her heart.

"Oh, Tarrant…" Mally sighed. She squeezed his elbow, trying to capture his attention. It was too Lost in his mind, and that was a dangerous place to be for him. "Alice isn't coming, love. She can't."

"Hmm?" he hummed, looking at her with eyes the crispest of spring's greens. Mally swallowed.

"She's Above, love. Remember?" she asked gently. "She drank the Jabber Blood. She went home."

"Nonsense," he tutted. "How could she have gone home, Mally? This is Home. Alice is –"

"Above, Tarrant," Mally said firmly, as kindly as she could, "and has been for Some Time. She's not coming back, Tarrant.

His eyes switched Red.


	2. 29 June 2019

**29 June 2019**

_**Prompt: **__Hope for Adventure_

_**Fandom: **__Alice in Wonderland (Burton)_

_**Character/Pairing:**__ Tarrant Hightopp/Alice Kingsleigh_

_**Rating:**__ K / G / All Ages_

_**Notes:**__ …it's a baby. I realized after writing it that I kept thinking "The new adventure is a baby!" without directly having her say "I'm pregnant" or "We're having a baby", so it's like you step into this conversation directly after she says that and…hey, the joy of writing exercises!_

Alice Kingsleigh – sorry, now Hightopp – had always had an insatiable thirst for adventure. It stemmed from her unending curiosity, a trait inherited from her beloved father. As far as Alice was concerned, there was not a door left unopened, a strait left unsailed, a question left…

…well. There were quite a few Questions left Unanswered, but as she was on rather good terms with Time now she wasn't too concerned by that. Time and all to answer them later.

The question she was most concerned with at present was the one posed by her giggling husband. He watched her with eyes of the clearest green, orange-dipped fingers fluttering at his mouth.

"Are you _certain?_" he asked again, and the part of her heart not overflowing with joy broke for him. Tarrant and Hope had a strained relationship on the best days, so even if this promised to be a Best Day of course he'd Doubt. Of course he would be wary of believing her.

"I am quite certain," she said with a brilliant smile. Well, if he wouldn't get excited, she'd have to be excited enough for the both of them. This was to be their greatest adventure yet, and one of them should be excited, after all. "Mirana ran the test three times, just to be absolutely sure."

"But, oh, are we even ready? This is quite a lot, Alice. So many hats to make," he rambled, glancing nervously to the door of his workshop. "It's been ever so long since I've made a Clan Hat."

"You made mine," she said, bemused. Of course her dear husband was more worried about the _Hat_. The poor thing wouldn't even be big enough for a Clan Hat for quite some time, and even then… "I thought you said a Hightopp must make his own Hat?"

"His final Hat, yes, but every Hightopp must have a hat given by his parents until he's skilled enough to make his own," he said. He leaned in and waggled his bushy eyebrows at her. "Mine was orange."

"I'm sure it clashed wonderfully with your hair," she giggled, and he released a bark of laughter.

"It was hideous!" he cried. "I was the youngest of Zanik's children to complete his Hat thanks to that."

He brushed his fingers along the brim of his hat then, smiling fondly at the faded green.

"I don't think I shall do that to our bairn," he said, his voice slipping into his brogue. "Blue, fer his máthair."

"It could be a girl," she said. She reached up and brushed a hand through his frizzled hair, recalling the fiery ringlets of his youth. "With your orange curls."

"An' yer blue eyes, laddie," he said. His eyes closed as she continued to stroke his hair. "Aye. Blue would be lovely."

"She could have your eyes," Alice mused, brushing a thumb along the purplish bruise of his cheeks.

"Nay," he said, shaking his head. "The world has enough Me in it. It needs more Alice."

"_My_ world never has enough you," she humphed. "It can do with an Us, though. A bit of me and a bit of you."

"How delightful!" he chirped, giggling again. "Oh, Alice! A baby Us!"

"A baby Hightopp," she said. She took his hand and placed it on her stomach, smiling at the way his fingers flexed and eyes danced. "Now doesn't that sound like a wonderful new adventure?"


	3. 30 June 2019

**30 June 2019**

_**Prompt: **__My Cup…_

_**Fandom: **__Alice in Wonderland (Burton)_

_**Character/Pairing:**__ Mallymkun, Tarrant Hightopp; Tarrant Hightopp/Alice Kingsleigh_

_**Rating:**__ K / G / All Ages_

_**Notes:**__ I actually have an Alice Cup. Unlike my Hatter and Cheshire mugs, this is not actual Disney merch and has Nothing Whatsoever to do with AiW beyond the fact that it reminds me of Alice. It's lovely._

The blue teacup was a new addition to the tea party, relatively speaking. It sat just to the right of the setting before the wingback chair at the head of the table. It was a pretty thing in pastel blue with gold swirls and delicate lilac flowers. It was also in pristine condition, completely unchipped – a rare sight at the tea party. It had also never been used, neither for drinking nor napping.

That was rare, too. Not that Mallymkun hadn't tried, but her excited coos over a new napping cup had turned to insulted squeals when Tarrant had snatched it away when she was halfway to crawling inside.

"Only Alices, if you please," he had tutted before dusting the cup off and putting it back in its proper place beside his own.

Mally was too busy being Worried to stay Insulted.

Tarrant had not been looking for an Alice Cup when he found it. No, if anything he had spent every day since the Frabjous steadfastly avoiding any Alice Thoughts at all. They tended to lead to Dark Places, and he was ever so tired of Underland being dark. Still, when he had found the cup in the weekend market, he had been unable to resist. The blue and gold was very Alice, after all, and she would need a cup for her tea when she finally returned. After all, the usual broken crockery just would not do for an Alice, who always deserved only the best – and the very best he could think of was her very own Alice Cup to break in herself. Oh, wouldn't she just love it?

That had been an awfully long time ago now. The cup was beginning to collect dust.

"Thackery, be a dear and toss the sugar," Mally called, tapping a spoon against her own cup.

"Say _please!_" Thackery bellowed, chucking two cubes Mally's way. The first landed in her tea with expert precision, yet the second hurtled towards the head of the table unchecked. Mally gasped and ran to catch it, but Tarrant just watched with detached eyes as the cube sailed towards Alice's cup. Mally caught it before it could land, yet her skidding stop nudged the Cup. The tea party grew deathly silent as the Alice Cup wobbled. Tarrant sucked in a breath as it teetered, then tottered, and finally Fell.

"Mally!" he cried, leaping from his chair as it shattered on the ground. A pesky stone had been waiting to catch the poor thing, and now his Alice Cup lay in pieces.

"Tarrant, love, I'm so sorry!" Mally cried, hopping onto his shoulder then down to help collect the pieces. He batted her away, not wanting the help of the one who had broken it to begin with.

"She'll never come back now!" Tarrant choked out. "Why would she, with nothing but broken pieces waiting for her? I wanted a whole cup to surprise her, to…"

Mally frowned as he rambled on. Alice had never seemed to have a problem with broken things, if you asked her.

"Hatter?"

The two froze at the voice. They looked up to find Alice standing at the entrance to the clearing, Chessur lolling lazily by her shoulders. She frowned as she approached.

"Whatever are you doing on the ground, you silly man?"


End file.
